PLASMATECH Informe resumido

State-of-the-art on plasma technologies for health

Although plasma technologies have been in development for more than 20 years, the first industrial use for a medical device application did not occur until 1995. In summary, the medical plasma applications concerned the surface modifications of the medical devices and sterilization.

More recently, specific functionalities were foreseen to be introduced on medical devices surfaces.- Surface modifications of the medical devices:

- Sterilization achieved by plasma:Several plasma sterilizers are already on the market but plasma is not the active principle of sterilization. In fact, H202, peracetic acid or ETO are the active sterilizers. Several projects are ongoing, both internationally and at the CE level to investigate plasma action to sterilize/clean surfaces.

In this research plasma is acting due to the synergetic effect of active radicals (H, O) UV emission. Several mechanisms are integrated as sterilization mechanisms: - Low pressure,- Thermal effect,- Direct destruction of DNA by UV radiation,- Erosion by intrinsic photodesorption, - Etching of microorganisms by a radical.